The attraction of lunatic balls seems to have come not only from the fear of violence or unpredictability in asylum-dwellers’s behaviour, but from the existential threat of being forced to ponder the blurry distinction between sanity and insanity.— Linda Besner

In this ancient Pompeii, sex was marketed unapologetically, with a directness that would shame the most mercenary of modern advertisers. Independent sex workers used graffiti to advise clients of prices and locations, while erotic frescos functioned as non-verbal signage for brothels, luring in passersby.— Alexandra Kimball